One in five adolescents has a mental illness that will persist into adulthood. Because mental health costs pose such a global economic burden, leaders in adolescent brain research have called for more investigation of the teen brain in an editorial published in Science on October 30th.  The editorial grew out of a meeting held in December 2013 at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New York.

The authors highlighted opportunities and priorities for more research that focuses on brain development and the translation of basic knowledge to clinical applications for treating adolescent mental illness.

“Understanding neurodevelopmental changes and their roles in emergence of mental disorders and how they affect treatment efficacy is imperative,” said the authors. “Yet, we estimate that less than 1 percent of the budget of the U.S. National Institutes of Health was directed toward adolescent brain research in 2014.”

The editorial was written by Foundation Scientific Council Members Francis Lee, M.D., Ph.D. (three-time NARSAD Grantee), Jay Giedd, M.D. (2013 Ruane Prizewinner for Outstanding Achievement in Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Research), Daniel Weinberger, M.D. (two-time NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grantee), and B. J. Casey, Ph.D.  Also contributing to the piece were two-time NARSAD Grantee Nenad Sestan, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Editor of the Schizophrenia Research Forum, Hakon Heimer, and Edward Lein, Ph.D.

Read a short summary of the article, “Adolescent Mental Health—Opportunity and Obligation” from Science.

Learn more about the meeting held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory last December.